Joker is having a re-run in cinemas. Good time for me to go check it out haha.

Just wait for the big releases. Most IMAX halls won't be filled until the big releases cause well, RM35 is expensive haha.

In actual IMAX halls that support 1.43:1 aspect ratio, mainly IMAX 70MM halls or IMAX Laser Grand Theatre (GT), then ya. We don't have that in Malaysia despite having 2 1.43:1 screens of Velocity and Vivacity. IMAX GT can be installed if the screen is at least L 24m x W 18m which those both halls have (Velocity 25.9m×19.4m, Vivacity 24.1m x 18m). However, IMAX GT is expensive to implement and maintain so guess TGV not keen to go GT (yet). Max we can get for now is 1.9:1. More info discussed many pages back but tldr the laser projection we have are only single projector, whereas 1.43:1 requires two.

Ooooof, I feel so lucky as I didn't book a ticket for this film. I actually watched the Joker re-run a few days before Joker 2 release. I was tempted to book the IMAX ticket, but felt like should wait since the reviews were rough. Oh well, I'm considering going to watch The Wild Robot and Transformers One again; the latter underperforming so badly cause Hashbros are idiots in advertising it well.

Yo don't do Godfather 2 like that. That movie was fantastic and is equal or even at some parts, exceed the first Godfather in terms of Michael's character arc in parelle to young Vito's past. Godfather 3 then yea xd.

We have our mini dual films of Transformers One and The Wild Robot. Amazing animated films for both kids and adults. Highly recommended to check them out; no IMAX or Atmos required haha.

LOL, Transfromers One and The Wild Robot is back in IMAX in TGV cinemas from Thursday onwards. I guess TGV do read this Lowyat thread hahaha (keep up the good work guys. PS. open a IMAX GT and/or Dolby Cinema hall, please? xd).

While not necessarily required to watch these two films in IMAX, both have great visuals and the Laser projection will help a lot with the colours to be more popping. If GSC also follow suits, I don't recommend visiting IOI City Mall 2's IMAX for these films. I watched Wild Robot there and the middle speakers have problems; when dialogue is spoken in the middle of the screen, it is muffled.

Edit: Seems like a lot of the blockbuster films are re-airing in IMAX, futher including Deadpool and Wolverine and Alien Romulus. Guess Joker 2 is such a flop that they rather use the other slots for these more successful prior films.

This post has been edited by Katharsis: Oct 14 2024, 11:51 AM

Well, guess all of us here has got to experience a bad sequel to an anticipated film. You guys got Joker 2, I got Smile 2. hahaha. Watched it in Pav BJ Atmos and it wasn't a good time movie wise as the script imo sucked and wasn't as scary or stressful as the first film.

I also had the courtesy of experiencing rude viewers there being disruptive af by talking loud during quiet, chill moments then messing up the tense build up of a scary scene (seriously, fuck these people).

That aside, hall wise, I visited this it a numeral times already and I can safely say that it is great with its top notch atmos speaker and surprisingly great image quality with the 4k Christie projector (better than most Big halls). Modest screen size but still bigger than normal halls. This is the closest we can get in terms of Dolby Vision/Cinema in Malaysia for now haha.

Anyway, now I can safely say I feel you guys, @ericling and @nnannon24. October has been a bad month for sequels. Guess only Venom now, but the past 2 films haven't gotten great reception, just meh too so HAHAHA. Plus, it is a Sony film so yikes.

This post has been edited by Katharsis: Oct 18 2024, 11:32 PM

Bro, if the renovation of Sunway Velocity didn't get dual laser even if it originally had that suitable screen, especially in an area of KL, you sure as hell ain't getting it in Johor HAHAHA. You can make a complaint to Toppen TGV but renovation/maintenance will take a lot of time to process and actually happen. Overall, rough for you guys over there.

Apparently, Sunway Velocity is a using IMAX CoLa projector (https://imax.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_IMAX_venues). After researching and understanding the difference between XT and CoLa, I do believe I noticed that Velocity's image was brighter and the colours were more vibrant; recalling my viewing of Deadpool x Wolverine between Bukit Jalil and Velocity and noticed Velocity's one being superior.

I'm pretty shocked that 1U is using XT considering how big the screen is there. The other CoLa projector is in TRX but that one luxury hall, so they should provide the best (ironically, the screen there is modest in size).

Overall, I think the difference is quite subtle and won't really matter. IMAX is an expensive venture and considering our Ringgit is weak when converting to USD, guess TGV find it hard to afford the more canggih IMAX projectors (GSC is cheap anyway, so I know they won't invest in it considering their recent IMAX halls have quite small screens). It makes sense for IMAX Corp to develop a cheaper yet high value projector so more global cinema chains can afford them and then build more IMAX halls. Overall, I do wish we have more CoLa projectors in IMAX halls, but even more so, I want a proper IMAX GT 1.43:1 hall. However, I am still quite happy that we actually got IMAX Laser, even more so with 12-channel. Audio is becoming important for me in cinemas hahaha.

This post has been edited by Katharsis: Nov 8 2024, 04:37 PM

There was a review of this hall many months back by @khainiz94 (https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=2552709&view=findpost&p=109128043). It's relatively small. It's like you said about GSC, their cashing in and now only targeting the rich, all while cheaping out on their product and service.

Some of their existing halls have detoriated and aren't taken care of despite problems being there for a long time. Last time I was in IOI City Mall 2 IMAX for The Wild Robot and the audio presenting from the middle of the screen was muffled/had too much bass, causing the dialogue to be quite incomprehensible (it's even more awkward when the surround sound shifts to different sides other than the middle, sounding clearer and true, until it goes back to the middle and ooof, overly bassy.

There's also their Big hall in MyTown. For years, there's a shaking noise on the top left, whether it is speaker or AC. Complaint and they haven't even solved it yet. This hurt few of my movie going experiences when there is silence in the film (A Quiet Place: Day One being the major one).

Sorry, derailed and long rant about GSC. It's a shame cause they did try to pioneer different tech from TGV's IMAX ala introducing Dolby Atmos, having Maxx as an alternative big screen (years back, but outdated af), Screenx IMO is a failure and having Big DA (really, they got this tech by buying MBO majority stocks during MCO, and honestly, the new built/renovated halls are quite mediocre compared ot the former MBO flagship ones of Starling and Tropicana Gardens) being a great, affordable alternative to IMAX Laser. Who can forget GSC was the first to launch IMAX Laser in Malaysia.

I remembered the talks about GSC being the better option because of their great value with ticket prices and snacks, whereas TGV while great, was very expensive and lacked many promotions provided by GSC. Now, the tables have turned lol. I mean, at least TGV even before and now, still provides a great and recently well-priced service.

Watched it yesterday after work in Velocity IMAX. It was fun and good. I wished it was 3 hours instead of 2.45hrs,because there were few plot lines and character arcs thay were rushed through. It could have been a grander epic with better pacong but otherwise, it is still petty entertaining. The action and sound design were top tier though, so there's that.

Essentially, Gladiator didn't need a sequel, but here it is anyway and it's still entertaining and alright, much like the uneeded Planet of The Apes sequel that came out months back; uneeded, but good anyway.

In terms of which halls to go, prioritise halls with great surround sound. I recommend BIG DAs from Starling, Tropicana Gardens then Lalaport for large screens. IMAX is also a good option but make sure it is the 12 channel halls (avoid KLCC Suria, screen is omega small).

Funny how TGV isn't offering the film in their DA halls, I would have recommended those.

Check my GSC rant. I mentioned that the middle part of the speakers there are defected. GSC's pioneering hall still having this problem months later. The MyTown hall likely still having that creaking noise too haha.

So nice ah. I got an annoying viewer my on right instead. His phone kept ringing and he kept answering it to talk. Then talked during epic scenes to explain to his partners on his side xd.

Reviews of it seems to be decent. I'll check it out in a Dolby Amos hall since it is a musical and all.

Hey guys, anyone of you visited KLCC Suria's TGV post renovations, especially the IMAX and DA halls? I'm interested if anyone has pictures of the halls, might go there to watch Wicked.

@skylinelover no lie man, this year's movies have been meh. The first half of this year was good with Dune 2 and Furiousa being the two blockbusters that I very much enjoyed and fondly remembered, but autumn and winter... ASS (though considering the news and climate of Hollywood, it was pretty much expected). The last movie I watched in cinema was Wicked and even though that film got high praises, I thought it was very good but very flawed.

TLDR, great acting, great sets which were practically made, and while the character arcs were predictable imo, they were still presented well for me to be invested. The issues were the bloated runtime and essentially, the film's progression dragging a lot to get to the next major plotline; it's essentially a coming of age film but the last quarter of it was very rushed and barely tied in to the first three quearters. The movie really, really overstayed its welcome at the end for me (first time I kept checking my phone to see when will this movie end and I have watched 3 hour films in cinema and still was very engaged), nevertheless, I do appreciate its efforts a lot.

Ahem, nevertheless, I skipped a lot the blockbusters post this: Venom 3, Moana 2, Mufasa etc. because they were cashgrab films. The one I might be planning to watch is Sonic 3 since I have heard how innocently fun it is but even then, I'm not really into live-action children films (let alone being a sonic fan... don't kill me). Hell, I'm actually more keen to watch Spirited Away that is currently re-released in cinemas (which I also never watched in my life... Please, please don't kill me) and that came out decades ago yet has so many seats are booked compared to Mufasa.

There are good videos on YouTube explaining why this is happening and essentially, there are too many expensive blockbusters with very inflated budgets as most Hollywood execs are too fixated on trying to get that $1B box office mark (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pSRihQY64o good video detailing Hollywood's mistakes and the Youtuber actually released a 2024 version recently. Highly recommended to check them out).

Yeah... Movies are kinda meh right now in the cinemas, and checking the upcoming Dolby/IMAX films on Wikipedia, there is not much to be excited for, even in 2025 as the ones I at least have high hopes for are Gunn's Superman and MI8. There are some films coming that I am personally hyped for, but I know that the cinema chains in Malaysia won't air them in special halls like IMAX (Nosferatu mainly. I really love the movies from this film's director and can't wait to watch it this week). Oh well, I hope there will be some surprise hits in the near future as I really want to go to the cinema more.

This post has been edited by Katharsis: Dec 22 2024, 07:03 PM

Lol. Someone is having a fun time with IRL stuff HAHAHA. I've chosen to skip Captain America BNW as the reviews showed it was mixed bag. I kinda expected it cause of the news prior about the movie having tons of reshoots and how the marketing of it was very weak like Marvel/Disney themselves are embarrassed of this film. Marvel imo needs to start respecting their ips and heroes' personal stories, rather than trying to set up another overarching story like the infinity stones, an attempt to still chase after that billions of dollars of box office per film, instead of following a proper pace to cool off first, then set everything up.

Look at Spiderman NWH. While setting up the multiverse, it was still a very isolated and personal story arc for Peter's growth. Give me more of this, fuck, give me more stuff like The Batman (rip release date. Gotta wait 2 more years for sequel AHHHH).

Same with Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness. Could have been a more reflective story of Stephen Strange's character, dealing with the fallout of Infinity War and End Game. He's a major reason to a lot of the sacrifices that happened as he saw the outcomes and chose this 1 way which was still tragic. Could have gotten a story arc where he has to deal with his new, daunting responsibility as the Sorcerer Supreme (or at least soon to be), which then he slowly adapts to his character of the comics: a morally grey character who has to make extremely difficult choices for the greater good.

Man... Sorry, there are currently a few superhero stories that aren't Marvel or DC that I have been watching that really do justice to their characters without having the shame of being a comic book adaptation. To see Marvel fumble this hard (for DC, they never even got off the ground properly, so please James Gunn, save DC. I'm a DC fan and these the characters there deserve justice) is so disappointing considering how well they did things prior by respecting their source material (for the most part). Now, they are just adapting their heroes loosely just so they can set up the next big event that can bring in gagillions of dollars.

Ok. Marvel rant over. I'm actually planning to watch Companion instead in KLCC's DA hall, but haven't found the time to do so. In any case, yeah, IRL geo-political stuff is concerning but I'm also figuring my life out with work and other responsibilities. Hopefully world events stuff get sort out but a lot of it is beyond our power. Stay safe out there yall.

@ericling that's IOI Damansara to you! Lol idk. Guess IOI group bought the mall some time back and bam. Row E and F are the sweet spot.

Quick thing, after 2 months of waiting, Nosferatu is finally airing in Malaysia and man was it good. Watched it in TGV Velocity normal hall and man, the projector is kinda ass haha. It's not bright enough in certain locations and some scenes with light in them are muddy/grainy (maybe fits with the old school style for filming, but overall to me, looked quite low resolution).

I'm hoping I can find the time to watch this again but in Tropicana Gardens... I mean, IOI Damansara's GSC Onyx DA for that crisp image quality. The film has amazing audio work and definitely may shine in a DA hall if optimised well there.

Higgly recommended to check this film out and other Robert Eggers films if you want something atmospheric, immersive and mind-twisting. Nosferatu's story compared to earlier Egger films is quite straightforward, but the acting, atmosphere, character depth and execution makes it really worthwhile. Amazing cinematography as well.

Fun fact, the film is in a tall aspect ratio of 1.66:1, so my screening had the letterbox at the left and right sides of the film instead of top and bottom. It was quite unique honestly... Now imagine if this was aired in IMAX instead... God, the tall aspect ratio and that sound design? Damn.

Be the one to try it for us XD. According to USA citizens, Dolby Cinema is better than IMAX mainly for more comfortable seats, better visual quality (Dolby Vision projection, so better hdr performance + brighter) and have way more speakers for surround sound vs IMAX's 12. The screens are supposedly big, but not as big as IMAX. I would say try it for the "better" technical set-up.

Apparently, Mickey 17's 1.9:1 aspect ratio is NOT exclusive to IMAX this time, so normal cinema halls should benefit too, so definitely check it out at Dolby Cinema.

I think it's likely Ne Zha 2's distributing company wants to get the most box office figures as they can. China alone, the film's domestic market got the film to 2 billion USD. It would be a feat to get the film higher for the bragging rights.

The film's budget is also reportedly around 80 million usd when converted (not as expensive as Disney's budget), so the film easily recouped it's production cost already.

I'm planning to watch this film in DA Laser as IMAX halls are packed full and it isn't mixed for 12 channel audio and tall aspect ratio.